Furnace construction



June 21, 1932. MORELQCK 1,863,634

FURNACE CONS TRUGT ION Filed Nov. 17, 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 7' Fly/Er June 21, 1932. E, M4ORELOCK Iv 1,863,634

FURNACE CONSTRUCTION Filed Nov. 17. 1950 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented June 21, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT E j ALBERT n. mominocx, on ST. LOUIS, mIssoURI, AssIGNoR 'ro IDRAFTO'GEN coMPAivY, or ST. LOUIS, mssouar, A CORPORATION orivrrssounr V,

FURNACE cons'rrworron- Application filed November 17, 1930; Serial No. 496,053.

My invention relates to improvements in furnace construction, and has among its ob.- jects the production of mechanism adapted to be placed within a furnace, and which shall be simple, sturdy, durable, convenient, economical, reliable, and efficient and'satisfactory for use wherever found applicable.

The invention has among its further objects, the production of a mechanism for installation within furnaces, which will increase the efficiency of the furnace, greatly decrease or entirely diminish objectionable smoking of the same, and which will enable the furnace to be suitably operated even with relatively inexperienced help, the furnace so equipped requiring minimum dependence" upon the human element for maximum eificiency. v v

- One of the important objects of my invention is the production of furnace construction, in which the combustion of the fuel will be substantially complete, so that practically all of the particles of combustible materialand gas within the furnace will be i effectively and efficiently burned before passing out through the stack.

Another object of my invention is to form a bridge wall or other walls that may extend along or across the furnace, of metal instead of the more usual refractory material, and to prolong-the life of such parts through cooling means, to thereby make such parts last as long as the other parts of the furnace itself. A further object make these metal bridge wall parts of hollow construction, whereby water or other suitable liquid may flow therethrough to not only cool the same, but whereby the waterwill be heated so that it may be from thence conducted to any suitable point for'use, as for instance to radiators, to the feed water inlet, etc. 1

A still further object of my invention is to so construct such walls and parts for furnaces, that the same will be made in small sections, which may be arranged in line across the width of the furnace to take up substantially the entire widthor space of the same, and if there is any space remaining of my invention is to pointed out in the claims.

between the end sect-ions and the adjacent walls of the furnace, the same may be filled in with refractory material or the like if too small to' accommodate an additional section. I In this manner, there is no necessity-of making special sizes of bridge walls to accommodate different widths of furnaces, the single sized sections being laid end to end to build them up to substantially the desired over-all size, and practically any plumber or steam-fitter may assemble-and install such sectionswithout long-training. I As an'additional object of myv invention, I have provided means for introducing auX- iliary air into the heated'gases. in the fur 55 na'ce, this auxiliary air beingintroduced in a direction contra to the natural or forced draftthereat, to thereby agitate the heated gases and lengthening their travel so'that they will-be more completely consumed and burned before being discharged through the smoke stack, these air ports being so arranged thatthe air dischar ing therefrom will have been-considerably eated 'prior to its discharge; I

" Another object of my invention is to provide-means-for automatically regulating the amount of auxiliary air so admittedi'nto the fire, so that. said adjustment will supply such air only when needed. t :30 Many-other objects and advantages of the constructionherein shown and described, will be obvious to those skilledin the art to which this invention appertain's, from the disclosures herein given. a g5 To this end, my invention consists in the novel construction, arrangement and combination of parts herein shown and described and uses mentioned, and more particularly y 4 t v In the drawings, wherein like'reference characters indicate likeor corresponding parts throughout the views,

Figure 1 is a longitudinal'verticalsection taken through one form of furnace;

Figure 2'is a top plan view of thesame with'the boiler and top of the furnace lifted 0E1 I i V liigure 3 is a perspective-view of one of "the wall sections which are laid-adjoining idu one another across the width of the furnace; Figure 4 is a cross section of the same taken substantially along the line 4-4 of Figure 3; Figure 5 is a detail of an outlet piece for giving a spiral twist to the air discharged through the sections; I T

Figure 6 is a fragmentarysection through a different type of furnace; and

Figure 7 is a perspective view of the wall sections used for this type of furnace Referring more particularly 'to the drawings, wherein I have illustrated the preferred embodiments of my invention, 1 indicates a boiler of any suitable size and shape and pro vided with means for heating or rather conducting the heat from the furnace combustionchamber to the liquid within the boiler, as for example the tubes 2 arranged in banks or series or in any other pattern formation, the heated gases from the combustion chamber entering these spaces between the tubes vfrom adjacent therear of the boiler, and afterhaving transferred its heat is thence discharged upwardly through the smoke stack atthe rear of the boiler.

suitable frame work or foundation is built up to receive the boiler thereon and to form the combustion chamber, such an enclosure being shown as provided with the brick walls 3 of any desired thickness, and

built vertically upwardly to the desired height Across the front of the furnace is arranged one or more doors or openings 4, toprovide access to theinterior of the furnace and through which the fuel may be supplied thereto the fire bed cleaned out, and for various other purposes, the grate being indicated at c t A The furnace thus shown may have a natural draft, or if so desired, a forced draft may be supplied, as through the blower pipesG-arrang-edto enter the furnace adjacent the fire bed,"andinthe'type of furnace shown, prefeiably hem above. Anarchwall7 may be provided across the width of-the furnace, intermediate thefront and rear ends of the same, whereby the combustion gases will be deflected downward-ly. thereunder as they travel rearwardly ofthe furnace. I V I A second wall 8 may alsobeprovidedgacross the width of the furnace and preferably be hind'the arch, being sealed againstthe bot tom of the furnace'iand spaced from the under side 'ofthe boiler, so as to further deflect=the heated gases upwardly at this point as they travel'a'earwardly through the furnace, such a wall being -general-ly termed the bridge wall, and customarily formed of some sort f. fmq rrm e iaL e a Instead of having this wall 8;of refractory material, which burns out rather quickly and thereby ;c auses' annoyance and expense in the renewal thereof, I have formed such a wallO-f, metal- -andkeep the same from melting asfby laroVi'ding a water-back or the like,

and whereby such a wall will last practically as long as the furnace itself.

Also, instead of making such a wall of a single piece, I have constructed it in sections, these sections adapted to be laid one adjoining the next one,in a straight line across the width of the furnace, and in the event that the width of the furnace is slight ly larger than the overall length of the builtup sectionsthat can be placed therein,-the

space leftbetwee'n the bridge wall so built up and the adjacent furnace walls may be sealed 'up'with fire-brick, fire-clay or the like. In this manner, it is seen that relatively inexperienced workmen may install such a wall, and the sections are sufficiently small that no part of the furnace need be torn out to permit the entry of these sections thereinto for installation. This point is especially important where it 'is desired to placeor replace a bridge wall in-an already set-up boiler.

These sections are made "somewhat like the ordinary radiator sections, in that they are of hollow metalconst-ruction, and the taco tionsare adapted to abut one against the other to coni'plete the wall-formation. These sections 9 may be of the full height of the bridge wall, or'if so "desired theymay be of a lesser height, as shown in Fig. 1, to form caps for the bridge wall, the remaining height of the wall-being built of a refractory material.

Each of thesesections-Q is m-a'deof metal, cast or otherwise suitably "formed to the desired shape, and in the form shown in the drawings, said sections *are of block-like shape, and are formedasfa shell witlra hollo'w interior through which the water or other liquid may-flow, as will bemo-re clearly hereinafter set forth-i Each block may come prise the pair of opposed fmnt and rear wall surfaces 10 and 11, and the pair of opposed end surfaces Hand 13 joining the front and rear surfaces to jcomplete the peripheral bounding wall surfaces, the top of theblock being indicated at "15'. a, v V

-Anopening or central chamber l4-is provided through the bottom of the block, this chamber. gpreferably extending upwardly 1 from the open bottom oftheblock to adj-acent "saidtop wall; 15, and also extending toward one endyas forexa-mplethe e11'Cl 1'2:Q f the block but clear through said end,

whereby there is formed' a chamber that is 3 closed on four sides and isopen only on the bO'fit m and one -of; theends of-the block.

a When the sections are formed in this manner, they may be made all ali ke and 1 in order to closethatencl of thebridge wallclesest one manner, thenecessity of providing rights and lefts is obviated, although, of course, the blocks may be cast in this manner if desired.

In order that the adj oinIng sections may, ht together well, the ends of the same may be provided with narrow ribs 16 thereabout, the ribs of one section preferably wedging against the ribs of the adjacent section, or some other manner of providing a good joint may be had. The adjoined sections may be held in their line formation by posItioning a tightening rod through aligned apertures 18 provided thru the sections.

Proper connections may be provided between adjoining sections whereby water may be conducted therethrough, as ports 17, it be ing noted that this water may circulate through all of the hollow interior of the plurality of sections, from one section to the next, as in the ordinary radiator. This water serves to prevent the sections from burning, and the water that has been heated therein may be from thence conducted to any suitable point, as for example to the feed water intake of the boiler, to heating radiators, etc.

In order to augment the supply of air in the combustion chamber of the furnace and to furnish this additional supply in such form that it will do the most good, I have provided means for pre-heating this auxiliary air before its admission to the combustion chamber, to such a degree that it will be practically as hot as the gases in the combustion chamber itself. To this end, I have provided ducts or openings 19 leading from the central chamber 14 of each block 9, said ducts leading through one of the front or rear walls, as for example the front wall 10 in the type of furnace shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and discharging into the combustion chamber.

The air is admitted to said chambers 14 through the inlet ports 20 leading to said chambers from adjacent the rear walls 11 of the blocks, all of said inlet ports preferably bein connected to a common source of air supply, as by the conduit 21, said inlet air being from the same source as that supplied to the main draft pipes 6 if desired.

In order to further increase the efficiency of the auxiliary air thus supplied, I have provided means in each of the outlet ports 19 whereby the air will be as widely dispersed as possible while discharging into the combustion chamber, one manner being by the use of short pipes 22 providedwith spiral internal ribs or vanes, to thereby impart a spiral twist to the discharged air. The pipes 22 may be at angles to one another if so desired, instead of parallel, so as to obtain a better intermingling of the auxiliary air and the heated gases that have been generated through the fire in the combustion chamber.

Obviously, these heated particles of air discharged into the combustion chamber will have becomehighly heater before their discharge and aid in the combustion of'the unburned amounts of combustible material in the fire .box. The pre-heated gases .discharged into the combustion chamber are discharged in a direction contra to the direction of the natural or forced draft thereat and cause an agitation 'thereat, giving the unburned particles'a chance to burn before their discharge up the stack. 7

In order to better control the auxiliary'air that enters into the combustion chamber, I have provided automatic means,as for example the thermostatically-controlled closure plate 23 arranged within the air chamber-14, as many plates being provided as there are chambers, or any other suitable form of air control through said outlet ports 19 may be provided; 7

Each of the plates 23 are pivoted or otherwise suitably mounted in its chamber 14, and so balanced that it will normally leave the ports 19 open, as by providing an extension part 24 to one side of the plate to throw it ofl balance. A suitable piece of material such as a metal that is eXpansible to the proper degree under the influence of heat may be arranged to engage with and control the movement of the plates, somewhat as shown at 25. Theplates 23 will be in the position indicated in .full lines When-the thermostatic control is unexpanded, and will be thrown to the positionshown in dotted lines when the part 25is heated to the predetermined degree desired. Thus the proper amount of air and the times of admission will be automatically controlled, the air being'admitted when most needed and shut off when no longer desirable.

In certain types of boilers there is very little space between the underside of the boiler and'the floor .of the furnace,'as with most residence types of boilers, and the arch and normal bridge walls are dispensed with. With this type of boiler, as illustrated in part in Figs. 6, the boiler is indicated at 26, with its under side at 27, and the floor of the furnace isindicated at 28. j

The sections 29 are formed as hereinbefore described, namely ofhollow cast metal pieces adapted to be arranged one adjacent the other in line across the width of the furnace. These .sections have a water space 30 between the opposed walls, and the auxiliary air 1s ad- 7 occur before the gases are discharged up the stack, the arrows in the drawings indicating the direction of draft. V

7 Having thus described my invention, it is obvious that various immaterial modifications may be made in the same without departing from the spirit of the same; hence I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to the exact form, construction, arrangement and combination of parts herein shown and described, or uses mentioned, except as limited by the state of the .art to which this invention appertains and the claims hereto n appended.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: c- V 1. In a furnace having a combustionchamber, a wall across said furnace intermediate 45 the front andrear endsof the same and consistingof a series of adjoining hollow metal sections, and means for l conducting air through said sections and discharging the same in a direction contra to the draft of the m furnace thereat.

2. In a furnace-construction, the combination with a grate, of a wall rearwardly thereof and'consisting of a series of metal blocks each having double walls forming a hollow interior, means for passing liquid through said interiors an air chamber Within each block and having air ports leading to and from said chamber, and means for controlling the passage of air from said blocks.

.39 3. In a furnace construction having a combustion chamber, a wall behind said chamber and consisting of a seriesof metal blocks adjoining one another, means for conducting liquid through said-blocks, means for passing '35 air through said blocks to pre-heat said air and thence discliarge the same into said furnace, and means for automatically vcontrolling the discharge of said heated air from said blocks.

4. In furnace construction having a combustion chamber,.hollow bridgeblocks arranged across'said furnace, an air chamber in each block and having air inlets leading thereinto and air discharge outlets leading 45 therefrom into said combustion chamber, means for conducting liquid through said blocksto coolthesame, andthermostaticallyoperated means for adjustably controlling the discharge of air from said chamber through said outlet ports.

ALBERT E. MORELOCK. 

